Editing Labor aristocracy (section)

==Origins==

The theory that well-compensated and well-to-do proletarians are more manipulable into [[Class collaboration|collaborating]] with the bourgeoisie was formulated by [[Friedrich Engels]] in a letter dated 7 October 1858 to [[Karl Marx]].<ref>{{cite book|lang= de|year= 1978|orig-date= 7 October 1858|author= Friedrich Engels|title= Engels an Marx in London|series= Marx-Engels-Werke|volume= 29|page= 358|quote= '''das englische Proletariat''' faktisch mehr und mehr '''verbürgert''', so daß diese bürgerlichste aller Nationen es schließlich dahin bringen zu wollen scheint, eine bürgerliche Aristokratie und '''ein bürgerliches Proletariat''' neben der Bourgeoisie zu besitzen.}}; English translation from {{cite book|year= 1983|title= Engels to Marx in London|series= [[Marx/Engels Collected Works]]|volume= 40|page= 344|quote= '''the English proletariat''' '''is''' actually '''becoming''' more and more '''bourgeois''', so that the ultimate aim of this most bourgeois of all nations would appear to be the possession, alongside the bourgeoisie, of a bourgeois aristocracy and '''a bourgeois proletariat'''.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|lang= ru|author= [[Vladimir Lenin]]|year= 1973|orig-date= 1916|title= Империализм и раскол социализма|series= В. И. Ленин – Полное собрание сочинений|volume= 30|page= 170|url= https://leninism.su/works/69-tom-30/1993-imperializm-i-raskol-soczializma.html}}; English translation from {{cite book|year= 1974|title= Imperialism and the Split in Socialism|series= V. I. Lenin – Collected Works|volume= 23|page= 112|url= https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1916/oct/x01.htm}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|journal= [[Monthly Review]]|volume= 21|issue= 11|date= 7 April 1970|author= Martin Nicolaus|title= The Theory of the Labor Aristocracy|page= 92|url= https://nicolaus.com/wp-content/uploads/writings/laborarist.pdf|quote= Let me briefly trace the history of the labor aristocracy theory. It begins with Engels, who noted in 1858: [....]}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|year= 2004|work= Links: International Journal of Socialist Renewal|issue= 26|author= Jonathan Strauss|title= Engels and the theory of the labour aristocracy|url= https://links.org.au/engels-and-theory-labour-aristocracy}}</ref>

A precursor to both wordings – "aristocracy of labo[u]r" and "labo[u]r aristocracy" – appears in Marx's 1867 treatise ''[[Das Kapital]]'', [[Das Kapital, Volume I|Volume I]].<ref>{{cite book|year= 1962|orig-date= 1867|author= Karl Marx|title= Das Kapital. Band I|chapter= d) Wirkung der Krisen auf den bestbezahlten Teil der Arbeiterklasse|chapter-url= http://www.mlwerke.de/me/me23/me23_677.htm#Kap_23_5_d|series= Marx-Engels-Werke|volume= 23|page= 697|quote= Bevor ich zu den eigentlichen Agrikulturarbeitern übergehe, soll an einem Beispiel noch gezeigt werden, wie die Krisen selbst auf '''den bestbezahlten Teil der Arbeiterklasse''', auf '''ihre Aristokratie''', wirken.}} English translation from {{cite book|year= 1982|title= Capital: A Critique of Political Economy|chapter= (d) Effect of Crises on the Best Paid Section of the Working Class|volume= I|translator= Ben Fowkes|page= 822|quote= Before I turn to the agricultural labourers, I shall just show, by one example, how crises have an impact even on '''the best paid section of the working class''', on '''its aristocracy'''.|publisher= [[Penguin Books]] in association with [[New Left Review]]|location= London}}</ref>

The precise wordings "aristocracy of labour" and "labour aristocracy" are attested in works produced from the late 19th to early 20th century such as [[William Morris]]'s 1885 ''The Manifesto of The Socialist League'' (in English),<ref>{{cite journal|journal= [[Commonweal (newspaper)|Commonweal]]|volume= 1|issue= 1|date= February 1885|author= Morris, William|title= The Manifesto of The Socialist League|page= 2|quote= Co-operation so-called — that is, competitive co-operation for profit—would merely increase the number of small joint-stock capitalists, under the mask of creating an '''aristocracy of labour''', while it would intensify the severity of labour by its temptations to overwork.}}</ref> [[Frank Kitz]]'s 1886 article ''Internationalism'' (in English),<ref>{{cite journal|journal= [[Commonweal (newspaper)|Commonweal]]|volume= 2|issue= 35|date= 11 September 1886|author= Kitz, Frank|title= Internationalism|url= https://www.marxists.org/archive/kitz/internationalism.htm|page= 189|quote= The birth of the International was a gleam of hope for the workers, but even upon that body they intruded their presence; sleek trade unionists, who only believe in a corrupt '''aristocracy of labour''' and the “rights of those who can get them,” irrespective of those who are entitled to them, joined with the aforesaid middle-class hacks in an hypocritical make-believe of adopting the economic theories of Marx and the principles of universal emancipation.}}</ref> [[Paul Delasalle]]'s 1900 pamphlet ''L'action syndicale et les anarchistes'' (in French),<ref>{{cite book|lang= fr|year= 1900|author= Delasalle, Paul|title= L'action syndicale et les anarchistes|page= 15|url= https://pandor.u-bourgogne.fr/archives-en-ligne/ark:/62246/r918zxk61j5x6k/f17?locale=fr|quote= Enfin nous pouvons toujours, en tant qu'anarchistes, empêcher le mouvement syndical de tomber dans les rouages d'une organisation autoritaire ou de créer une '''aristocratie ouvrière'''.}}; for an English translation, see {{cite web|date= 9 December 2013|translator= Alias Recluse|website= [[Libcom.org]]|title= Anarchists and the Trade Unions|url= https://libcom.org/article/anarchists-and-trade-unions-paul-delesalle}}; for a Spanish translation, see {{cite web|date= 4 April 2011|website= Biblioteca Virtual del sindicalismo revolucionario y del anarcosindicalismo|title= La acción sindical y los anarquistas|url= https://bibliotecasindicalista.wordpress.com/2011/04/04/la-accion-sindical-y-los-anarquistas-paul-delesalle/https://bibliotecasindicalista.wordpress.com/2011/04/04/la-accion-sindical-y-los-anarquistas-paul-delesalle/}}</ref> [[Karl Kautsky]]'s 1892 book ''[[The Class Struggle (Erfurt Program)|Das Erfurter Programm in seinem grundsätzlichen Theil erläutert]]'' (in German)<ref>{{cite book|year= 1892|author= Kautsky, Karl|lang= de|title= Das Erfurter Programm in seinem grundsätzlichen Theil erläutert|chapter= V. Der Klassenkampf|chapter-url= https://www.marxists.org/deutsch/archiv/kautsky/1892/erfurter/5-klassenkampf.htm|quote= Diese bessergestellten Arbeiter bildeten bis vor kurzem – und bilden zum Teil noch heute – eine von der großen Masse des Lohnproletariats abgesonderte '''Arbeiteraristokratie'''.}}; rough translation: "Until a short while ago, these better-off workers formed – and in part nowadays still form – a '''labour aristocracy''' isolated from the great mass of wage proletariat."</ref> and 1901 article ''Trades Unions and Socialism'' (translated into English by [[Eugene Dietzgen]]),<ref>{{cite journal|journal= International Socialist Review|volume= 1|issue= 10|date= April 1901|author= Kautsky, Karl|translator= Dietzgen, Eugene|title= Trades Unions and Socialism|page= 595|url= https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/isr/v01n10-apr-1901-ISR-gog-Wisc.pdf|quote= The increase of duties, resulting herefrom, is compensated by having the economic and political basis of their achievements rendered more solid than that of the achievements of a '''labor aristocracy'''. The more such an '''aristocracy of labor''' leaves the unskilled, unprotected, unorganized parts of the proletariat to shift economically for themselves, the more these come to be the breeding centers of scabs who stab organized labor in the back on every occasion and thus paralyze every decided action.}}</ref> etc.

[[Mikhail Bakunin]], who also proposed in a fragment written in French around 1872 that relatively better-off proletarians were heavily bourgeois-influenced,<ref>{{cite book|author= Mikhail Bakunin|year= 1910|orig-year= 1872|chapter= Fragment formant une suite de L'Empire Knouto-Germanique|title= Œuvres|volume= IV|page= [https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=coo.31924092582331&seq=431 413]-[https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=coo.31924092582331&seq=432 414]}}</ref> is credited with coining the term "aristocracy of labo[u]r" (whence "labo[u]r aristocracy");<ref>{{cite journal|journal= Práticas da História: Journal on Theory, Historiography and Uses of the Past|year= 2018|issue= 7|author= George Souvlis|title= The Popular Front and Marxism in Eric Hobsbawm's Historical Works|volume= Historiography and Uses of the Past|page= 114|doi= 10.48487/pdh.2018.n7.22448|url= https://doi.org/10.48487/pdh.2018.n7.22448|quote= [...] the labour aristocracy. This term was coined by Bakunin [...]}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|work= [[Morning Star (British newspaper)|Morning Star]]|date= 23 January 2023|author= [[Marx Memorial Library]]|title= What is a 'labour aristocracy' — did one exist in the past and does it exist today?|url= https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/f/whats-labour-aristocracy-did-one-exist-past-and-does-it-exist-today|quote= The Russian anarchist (and anti-Marxist) Mikhail Bakunin first used the term “aristocracy of labour” in the 1870s [...] }}</ref> however, that term is in fact found in [[Sam Dolgoff]]'s 1971 loose translation of Bakunin's fragment, which contains no word translatable literally as "aristocracy of labo(u)r".<ref name = "bakunin-fragment">{{cite book|author= Mikhail Bakunin|year= 1910|orig-year= 1872|chapter= Fragment formant une suite de L'Empire Knouto-Germanique|title= Œuvres|volume= IV|quote= [...] la couche supérieure, la plus civilisée et la plus aisée du monde ouvrier, [...]|page= 413|url= https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=coo.31924092582331&seq=431}}</ref><ref name = "bakunin-fragment-dolgoff">{{cite book|translator= Sam Dolgoff|year= 1971|title= Bakunin on Anarchy|chapter= On the International Workingmen's Association and Karl Marx|page= 294|chapter-url= https://archive.org/details/bakunin-on-anarchy-selected-works-by-the-activist-founder-of-world-anarchism/page/293/mode/2up|quote= [...] the upper layer, '''the aristocracy of labor''', those who are the most cultured, who earn more and live more comfortably than all the other workers.}}</ref> In an unsent letter dated to 5 October 1872 for ''La Liberté'',<ref>{{cite book|year= 1973|title= Mikhail Bakunin: Selected Writings|chapter= XIII On Marx and Marxism|page= 232|editor= Arthur Lehning}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|year= 1971|title= Bakunin on Anarchy|editor= Sam Dolgoff|page= 274}}</ref> Bakunin likewise objected to a "so-called [[socialist state|popular state]]" of, by, and for "a new aristocracy" of urban factory workers who would subjugate the rural proletariat.<ref name = "bakunin-letter">{{cite book|year= 1910|orig-date= 5 October 1872|last= Bakunin|first= Mikhail|author-link= Mikhail Bakunin|title= Œuvres|volume= IV|chapter= Lettre au journal la Liberté, de Bruxelles.|quote= Ni plus ni moins qu’'''une aristocratie nouvelle, celle des ouvriers des fabriques et des villes''', à l’exclusion des millions qui constituent le prolétariat des campagnes et qui, dans les prévisions de Messieurs les démocrates socialistes de l’Allemagne, deviendront proprement les sujets dans leur grand État soi-disant populaire.|page= 374|url= https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=coo.31924092582331&seq=392}}</ref><ref name = "bakunin-letter-cox">{{cite book|year= 1973|title= Mikhail Bakunin: Selected Writings|chapter= A Letter to the Editorial Board of La Liberté|page= 253-254|translator= Steven Cox|quote= Nothing more or less than '''a new aristocracy, that of the urban and industrial workers''', to the exclusion of the millions who make up the rural proletariat and who, in the previsions of the German social democrats, will in effect become subjects of this great so-called popular State.}}</ref><ref = "bakunin-letter-dolgoff">Compare also {{cite book|translator= Sam Dolgoff|year= 1971|title= Bakunin on Anarchy|chapter= Letter to La Liberté|page= 280|chapter-url= https://archive.org/details/bakunin-on-anarchy-selected-works-by-the-activist-founder-of-world-anarchism/page/279/mode/2up|quote= It is no more nor less than '''the aristocratic rule of the factory workers and of the cities''' over the millions who constitute the rural proletariat, who, in the anticipations of the German Social Democrats, will in effect become the subjects of their so-called People's State.}}</ref>